Jaime Munguia is still waiting on a finalized opponent but has a date and location for his next ring adventure.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the unbeaten former WBO junior middleweight titlist will return to the ring October 29 at Pechanga Arena in San Diego. The full details of the bout remain in progress, other than his fight once again headlining a DAZN telecast from his home region.
“It’s official,” Fernando Beltran, Munguia’s co-promoter and head of Zanfer Boxing, confirmed Thursday evening. “Jaime Munguia returns to the ring on October 29 at Pechanga Arena, San Diego. Closing in on (the opponent).”
Previous rumors suggested that Munguia’s team was in advanced talks to next face England’s John Ryder in a super middleweight bout. However, representatives from Zanfer Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions would not speculate on whether the former title challenger is still the frontrunner or if other options were being explored.
Munguia (40-0, 32KOs)—who turns just 26 on October 6—continues his run as one of the sport’s most active fighters.
The announced date will mark his third fight of 2022 and fourth within an eleven-month span, all taking place roughly within two hours of his Tijuana hometown. It will mark his debut in San Diego, less than 40 minutes from home and after previously fighting twice in Anaheim and once in Tijuana all in his prior bouts dating back to last November.
In his most recent start, Munguia scored a fifth-round stoppage of Jimmy ‘Kilrain’ Kelly on June 11 at Honda Center in Anaheim. The fight was contested at super middleweight, coming at a contracted limit of 165 pounds. It marked a career-heaviest weight for Munguia, who has spent the last two years at middleweight after previously campaigning at junior middleweight where he crammed six title fights into a sixteen-month span.
The win over Kelly was the sixth for Munguia at or above middleweight, though his team drew criticism for the fight that didn’t take place that night.
Plans were seemingly in place for Munguia to challenge unbeaten WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22KOs) on June 18 in Charlo’s Houston hometown. The fight fell apart at the eleventh hour over a dispute on which platform it would air—Showtime was prepared to carry the event, while Munguia’s handlers insisted that DAZN needed to be involved.
Ironically, it was never meant to be as Charlo has not since fought. The undefeated two-division titleholder agreed to instead face Poland’s Maciej Sulecki on the date but was forced to postpone the show after reportedly suffering a back injury. The fight has yet to be rescheduled.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox